Like A Handprint On My Heart
by Ryuukari
Summary: Ninjas are never ones to retain their childhood innocence for long. In the harsh world of the shinobi, they are forced to grow up much too quickly. Every ninja has their own coming of age story to tell. What's hers?
1. And It Begins

A/N: I'll tell you this right now: this is an OC centric story. Yep, you heard me. I love OC stories, and I thought it was about time I made one myself. So, here it is!

My goals for this fic are:

1. To create a well-rounded, believable character.  
2. To have an OC story whose OC is not a Mary-Sue.   
3. To prove that, if done correctly, OC stories can be just as good as non-OC stories, and to prove that not all OCs are Mary Sues/Gary Stus.  
4. To the kind of fic that'll leave readers feeling... Well, I don't exactly know what to call the feeling. You know that feeling you get after reading the final chapter of a book or fic, the last episode of an anime, or the last chapter of a manga that you liked? Feeling sort of... light, and inspired and a little sad that it's over all at once? Yeah, I'd like to have something like that. :)

A few notes before you start reading: Hate OCs? Hate my OC? Take your flames elsewhere, buddy. And... yup, that's about it.

Disclaimer: The day I own Naruto will be the day that Tobi stops being a good boy. pinches Tobi's cheek Aww, he's just so cyuteh!

* * *

For as long as she could remember, Tsukiko had always lived in the small village of Intai with her mother, Mitsuki, and younger brother, Shotatsu. It was located just outside the walls of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, away from the hustle and bustle the shinobi village created on a daily basis. Intai, despite being so close to this, was a relatively peaceful place, and a great place to grow up.

The village was small enough that everyone knew each other, and the two Akihana siblings often described the village as one big family. Everyone certainly acted like a family, at least. Tsukiko and Shotatsu found themselves playing the part of everyone's grandchildren or niece and nephew. Or, in the case of the only other person who had been their age in the village, a close friend. Perhaps even a brother and a sister. That person had been the one the two were closest to, while he had been alive.

So, it was to be expected that the siblings would feel upset when their mother announced that they would be moving back into Konoha. Both Tsukiko and Shotatsu hadn't been born in Intai; no, they were born in Konoha. In Tsukiko's case, she had lived there until she was three. But that was so long ago, and neither could remember it. It was with heavy hearts that they packed up their belongings and said goodbye to everyone in the shinobi retirement village that they had come to regard as family.

"It'll be an opportunity to meet others your age," their mother, who happened to be a retired shinobi herself, had said as she smiled at the two when she had told them the news. "and you know that Konoha isn't far. You'll be able to visit everyone as often as you'd like."

And even though neither Shotatsu or Tsukiko had protested this decision (verbally, at least), she continued on when neither looked too consoled with her words. "This move is necessary if either of you want to become shinobi. You want to put all of the training everyone here has offered you to use, don't you?"

She had smiled at the two of them when they gave incoherent, mumbled responses which translated to something along the lines of, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"We'll be moving in three days. That should give you both plenty of time to pack and say goodbye to everyone, okay? Please give Konoha a chance, I'm sure you two will love it there."

So now, three days later, the family of three found themselves waiting patiently outside the large doors of Konoha. It didn't take long for the nin looking over their passes and identification papers to allow them entrance. With a slight nod from said shinobi, the other ninja who stood guard in front of the door stepped aside to allow them to pass.

Shotatsu and Tsukiko had made a silent agreement to show just how much they hated this by means of being silent and moody and as difficult as possible. It was one of the first things they had agreed on in over a year. Despite this, they couldn't help but look at the village in awe.

They knew that Konoha would be very different from Intai, but they hadn't expected Konoha to be i this /i different. Both felt more than a little overwhelmed with just how big Konoha seemed to be, how many people there were, and how many different things seemed to be going on all at the same time.

'So this is what a real shinobi village is like' Tsukiko thought to herself, her eyes darting around from place to place, finding it impossible to take it all in at once. She felt that this was partially to blame on her left eye, which she hadn't been able to see out of it for the past year or so. There were short, random periods of time in which her vision returned to her, but even then all she could see were the vague shadow of shapes.

Shotatsu's thoughts were nearly the same; he went as far as to verbalize them with a simple, "Woah!"

Their mother, who had been watching and anticipating their actions, chuckled. When this caught the attention of the brother and sister, they tried to return to their previous level of moody-ness, but neither could bring themselves to resent the idea of living here anymore. In fact, now that they were actually here, it really didn't seem so bad. Like their mom said, they could visit everyone in Intai anytime they'd like, right? And both of them did really want to become shinobi...

"So, what do you two think?"

"I guess it's okay," Tsukiko replied, trying not to sound too interested, and Shotatsu nodded in agreement.

"Where are we gonna be living?" the nine-year-old asked quickly after, craning his neck around as if looking for some sort of sign that would point to the place. His newfound interest wasn't quite as skillfully hidden as Tsukiko's was, but he didn't seem to care if it was or not. Unlike Tsukiko, he didn't care as much about not letting his mom have the satisfaction of knowing she had been right all along.

"Not that far," Mitsuki, their mom, answered vaguely, a smile on her face now that she had gotten the reaction she wanted. "Our things are already there, so once we get there I want you two to unpack, got it? And Tsukiko, honey, what are you looking at?"

The last of their mother's words were added when she realized that her daughter was barely paying attention. She looked in the direction Tsukiko was looking in curiously.

"What is it, honey?"

"Hm...that guy," she replied distractedly, and though her mother wasn't sure of what guy she was specifically talking about, she knew where her daughter was getting at. She rolled her eyes before Tsukiko could even voice the rest of her thoughts. "He's so...hot!"

Her eyes followed the mass of mousy brown hair as it walked into the crowd, a grin playing at her lips.

Shotatsu scrunched up his face, "Ew. Why d'ya always have to be such a pervert?"

Tsukiko chose to be as mature as possible with her response, and gave him the finger.

"Tsukiko!"

"Sorry, mom."

It didn't take long for the three to get moving again. Apparently, their new...place of living (as Tsukiko called it to herself, as she couldn't bring herself to call it her home just yet) was near the center of the city. Tsukiko found that the farther into the city they got, the more crowded it got as well, and she made sure to keep an eye on her mother.

Back in Intai, her mother never was around this many people, so she was unsure of whether or not the older woman was used to maneuvering around this many people in her wheelchair. That was the reason they had lived in the retirement village in the first place; the disability that had forced their mother to give up her life as a shinobi. It happened not long after Shotatsu was born, when Tsukiko was only a little over three years old.

She could remember how confused she had been, when someone had told her that her mother wasn't a ninja anymore. She could also recall how upset she had been when she had seen her mother sleeping in the hospital bed, and saw how pale she looked. Tsukiko also clearly remembered how much more upset she had gotten when she first realized that a good portion of her mother's left leg was missing.

It hadn't taken Tsukiko long to realize just how difficult things might be for her mom now, even if just for a little while. It was around the time she turned 5 that she began taking an active role in helping around the house.

Though she couldn't do much at the time, she had been determined to do all she could to help out. Mostly, she helped with taking care of her little brother, who was quite a handful when he was younger.

'He still is', she thought to herself, glancing over at him. Tsukiko could tell that it was taking all of his self control not to start running around from place to place, now that he was hyped up about living here.

She had also been very active in her role as a big sister, and it didn't take long for her and her brother to become practically inseparable. Tsukiko frowned to herself when she thought of how quickly their relationship had deteriorated a little over a year ago.

She glanced over to Shotatsu again and her frown marring her face deepened when she thought of how she was the one to blame for this. A part of her constantly felt awful about it, and hoped that the relationship between her and her brother would someday get better...

Shotatsu turned his head back at her and stuck out his tongue when he caught his older sister staring at him.

...and sometimes she didn't.

This managed to draw her from her line of thoughts (she was really grateful, she wasn't fond of thinking too much about those things). Tsukiko glared and looked away. Her eyes fell on one building in particular when she did, and she eyed it with interest.

'Ichiraku's ramen...' she smiled to herself, making a note to go there sometime. She hadn't had ramen in quite awhile; her mother never made it too often because of how unhealthy it was. Seeing the ramen stand reminded her of her closest friend while in Intai, Koshi. When he was still alive, he had loved ramen. Personally, it wasn't exactly her favorite food, but she liked it all the same. How could she not like it, even just a little, after years of hearing Koshi talk nonstop about it?

Another thing that caught her attention was the kid in orange she saw when she looked at the ramen shop. It was hard not to notice him, with how much he stuck out from everything else she had seen thus far.

"Bastard! I'll beat you to a pulp for that!"

Tsukiko winced at the volume of his voice when he spoke. Despite the decent 20 yard distance from the ramen stand, it still sounded as if he was right next to her, screaming into her ear.

"Holy crap, that kid's loud," Shotatsu commented, wincing himself. Both were equally glad when their mother told them to hurry up, and they got out of hearing range.

The place they would be living at wasn't too far away from Ichiraku's. It was an apartment, which made Tsukiko worry a little until her mother explained that their apartment was on the first floor.

Conveniently, it was one of the first apartments you reached upon entering the building, aside from the landlord's office and apartment. And true to what their mother had previously told them, all of their belongings were already in the apartment.

"Not bad," Tsukiko said after taking a quick walk around the apartment. It had a full bathroom, a bedroom for each of the three Akihanas, a kitchen area, and a dining room. For an apartment, it was pretty large, too; it was almost the size of the entire one-story house the family had previously owned in Intai.

She noted, however, that there was a hole in the wall of the dining room which needed fixed. That was probably why the apartment had been so cheap, but it was something that could easily be fixed.

All in all, she liked the place and could see herself actually calling this 'home' in the near future. The second bedroom on the right down the hall, especially...

"I'm glad you think so," their mom said sincerely. "Now, can you two help me put the boxes in the rooms the belong in? We can start unpacking as soon as that's done."

Tsukiko was quick to grab one of the boxes labeled, 'Tsukiko's' and race towards the bedroom she already had her eye on. Shotatsu did the same after letting out an indignant, "Hey!"

"Tsukiko! No fair!"

"Shut up, Sho! I'm the oldest, so I get first pick!"

"Well, you're the ugliest too, but you're not bragging about that, are you?!"

"What did you say?!"

"Stop fighting, you two!" Their mother sighed heavily, though a glint of amusement shined in her light moss-green eyes. "...how did I know that something like that was going to happen?"

* * *

Unpacking had taken up the entire afternoon and evening, leaving Tsukiko unable to explore the village that day. The only thing the three had left to do was move their furniture to the appropriate places, and they would be completely settled in. Mitsuki had already called someone about fixing the wall, and that would be done sometime by the end of the week.

Tsukiko went to bed that night extremely tired, leaving her to wonder how she could still remain energetic after a few hours of training, but couldn't after unpacking a few measly boxes. It was one of the mysteries of the world, she guessed, and didn't have any time to think any further on it before she fell asleep.

The next morning, after she had helped her mother out of bed and had moved the furniture with Shotatsu's help, Tsukiko was getting ready to go out and take a look around the village. Shotatsu had left nearly a half an hour before, but Tsukiko had stayed behind to make sure her mom would be alright getting to the Hokage's building.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? I can walk with you, if you want. And how do you know he'll let me enter the Academy? Maybe I'm too old..."

Okay, so maybe Tsukiko knew that her mother was fully capable of getting from place to place herself. Admittedly, she mostly wanted to speak with her mother about what she and the Hokage were going to be meeting about.

Mitsuki had already spoken with the Hokage before the three had come the previous day, and all arrangements concerning their move were already taken care of. Today, however, she had to speak with him about what they were to do about Tsukiko and Shotatsu entering the Academy.

"I'm fine and I'll work everything out, stop worrying," her mother ushered her out of the apartment building's door as best she could. "Go take a look around the village, and be back before dinner. I'll tell you everything then."

"But-"

Her mother looked at her sternly. "Tsukiko."

She pouted but said nothing more than, "Fine. I'll see you tonight, mom." and walked off in the opposite direction of the Hokage's tower. It wasn't until she was a out of her mom's view before she punched the air and let out a big cheer.

"This place is awesome!"

Now that she was away from her mom, she felt safe enough to freely admit to what she had been thinking since she had actually seen the village first hand.

Her mom had been right in saying that she would love it there, but there was no way she was going to admit it to her. Tsukiko wouldn't be able to stand the 'I-told-you-so' look on her mother's face. She could imagine what her mom would say.

"See, and you were making such a big deal of all of this! You were acting as if Konoha would be absolutely horrible, but it isn't, is it?!"

Her mom could be really weird and excitable about that sort of thing, almost as if she were a kid herself again.

But she could see why her mother had loved growing up in this place so much, and why she was happy to be here again. Though she loved it back in Intai, Konoha was a really nice change of scenery. And even if she had yet to see even a small fraction of the village yet, Tsukiko could tell that she was going to love it here. She was sure that Koshi would have loved it here, too.

A few random people gave her a friendly smile as she passed, which she gladly returned. A few little kids ran past her, laughing loudly, and Tsukiko could remember a time when she and Shotatsu did things like that together.

"Now," Tsukiko grinned to herself and pulled out some of the money her mother had given her earlier that day, "it's time to get some ramen!"

Tsukiko took a deep breath and she observed everything around her. Yeah, this place was definitely much different than Intai. But as she walked the short distance to the ramen stand, with money clenched in her fist, Tsukiko already felt herself beginning to feel at home here.

* * *

A/N Ending's a little cheesy... oh well. '' Second chapter'll be up soon! Please review. Flames will be fed to Tobi, and they'll make him blow up. And we don't want Tobi blowing up, do we? Of course not. Tobi's a good boy.  



	2. Cheesecake and Jello

A/N: Woot, next chapter! Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. U The next one should be up by Wednesday. Thanks to KrazyAsian9 for reviewing, faving, and putting this on your alerts list. w -glomp- Thank you!!

Disclaimer: I own Naruto! It's mine, _all mine_! Mwahahahaha-shot xx Okay, so maybe not. Owwies...

* * *

Tsukiko fidgeted in her seat anxiously, one eye on the doorway and the other on the group of kids in the room with her. She was trying to pay attention to both the conversation going on, and any sign for the examiner who would surely be coming through that door any minute now.

"Hey, you listening?"

"Uh, yeah," Tsukiko said quickly, looking away from the doorway so that she could focus on those around her. Her eyes found that of the boy who was talking to her specifically.

"Then what did I just say?"

"Um..." Tsukiko plastered a sheepish smile on her face, "something about cheesecake and jello?"

He looked at her oddly, as if she wasn't quite right in the head. Tsukiko almost agreed with him – cheesecake and jello? Where did that come from?

"What a weirdo," he said to himself and turned away from her to continue talking to the others. Tsukiko sighed.

' _Nice way to make friends, Tsukiko. They probably think you're some kind of...insane airhead or something now.._'

"I like cheesecake and jello," a voice said to her left. She had to turn completely around to be able to see who had spoken. It turned out to be one of the kids in the group she was sitting. He seemed to be the only one who hadn't tuned back into the other boy's conversation. Instead, he was sitting backwards in his chair, his back to the others, and was looking at her intently.

"Uh, me too," she said, and when he didn't stop staring at her, she looked away awkwardly. She focused on the door for a few moments, before chancing a glance back at him.

' _Why's he staring like that? What a creep..._ '

She politely excused herself and moved to the other side of the room, away from the boy. It wasn't as if she was involved in the conversation with the others anyway, they wouldn't miss her. She felt relieved when the boy finally removed his eyes from her and turned back to the others. This left her time to think about what she was waiting so anxiously for at the moment.

' _They should be here to start the exams now...what's taking them so long._'

She had been surprised when her mother informed her the previous night that she had the opportunity to become a ninja so quickly. Tsukiko certainly hadn't expected to be permitted to take the exam as soon as she arrived in Konoha, but in the end she decided it didn't really matter what she expected. All the better for her, right?

Shotatsu, of course, hadn't liked the idea too much. He thought it unfair that his older sister could skip going to the academy altogether, when he had to spend the next 3 years there.

Tsukiko remembered her mother's explanation at dinner the day before.

_"It took a bit of persuading on my part," her mother said after she had quieted Shotatsu's indignant reply to the news. "because the Hokage initially wanted to place you in the Academy for an entire year first._

_But I explained to him how you had been trained since an early age, and how you were already proficient in all of the fundamentals and basics you would have learned in the academy."_

_Tsukiko smirked to herself, taking a glance in Shotatsu's direction. He muttered a quiet, "So am I..." to himself, but their mother ignored it._

_"So, he's giving you a chance to take the academy exam tomorrow. Do you remember how I told you that even after you graduate from the academy, there's a chance that you can still be sent back?"_

_"Yeah... Those people have to spend another year or something in the Academy, right?"_

_"They used to, yes. Those restrictions changed a little this year, and those students only have to go back to the Academy for 6 months now."_

_Tsukiko was able to infer the rest on her own, but to clarify she asked, "So... I'll be taking the exam with the groups of kids who were sent back to the academy?"_

_"That's right," her mother nodded, and Tsukiko smiled widely._

_"That's fine with me!" her expression slid from the joyed one she wore moments ago, into a sly and teasing one. She cupped a hand to her mouth and leaned over towards Shotatsu. "That's three whole years you'll still have to go to the Academy, you know that?"_

_Shotatsu glared, and the look on Tsukiko's face when she got a face full of rice was priceless._

"The little brat," Tsukiko muttered bitterly to herself remembering what he did. She'd have to remember to get him back for throwing that rice at her.

"Who?"

Tsukiko was startled out of her thoughts, and when she managed to finally realize that someone was speaking to her, she was more than a little flustered.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!"

The boy that stood before her quirked an eyebrow. She recognized it as one of the friends of the kid who had called her a 'weirdo'.

"But I walked right up to you," he gestured to his right.

"...I didn't see you coming."

"Tch, what are you, blind or something?"

She knew he was just teasing and didn't mean anything by it, but that didn't stop her from feeling a little upset and bitter with his words.

Tsukiko chose to ignore the comment though, and turned her head to scowl over at the wall. "What do you want?" she asked sourly, getting straight to the point.

"Eh, nothing really." He didn't seem to take note of her bad mood, or how she obviously didn't want to speak with him. And even if he did, it didn't really seemed like he cared what she wanted. He sat on one of the desks in front of Tsukiko, his back to the front of the classroom and his feet on the desk's seat. "Just thought I'd come over and say sorry about my friend. Y'know, when he called you a weirdo?"

"How kind of you," Tsukiko said dryly, but she found that her irritation had already vanished. Something about his personality (even if she had only known him for what, five seconds?) kept her from holding any harsh feelings toward him. Maybe it was because that, in those five seconds or so, he had begun to remind Tsukiko of Koshi.

"Yeah, how kind of me. Anyway, I've never seen you before- ?"

"I just moved here yesterday, and I was given special permission to take the exam."

"Really? Huh. Well, my name's Shiko Takiyana," his hand sprung forward and took hold of Tsukiko's to shake it. "What's yours?"

"Tsukiko Akihana," she shook his hand and then pulled it away from his grasp. "Nice to meet you." She smiled at him, and took a chance to look at him more closely. Tall, mousy brown hair and nice green eyes... he seemed a little familiar.

"Oh!" Tsukiko's eyes widened as she recognized this boy to be the one she had seen the previous day.

"_Hm... that guy. He's so... hot_"

Heat rushed to her face and she shifted in her seat. Well, this was awkward.

"You okay?"

"Uh, yeah, just fine," she shifted her eyes from side to side, avoiding eye contact, and he laughed.

"You really are weird, you know that? But a good kind of weird," he grinned across the desk at her. "So, tell me a little about the place you and your family moved from..."

* * *

"I know you're there."

Shotatsu turned to look at the small group of people that had been following him for the past ten minutes. He had noticed them shortly after they had started tailing them. It was hard not to, with how loudly they were whispering to one another the whole time.

"Aw, man! Boss, how did he see through our disguise?!"

Shotatsu turned to take a look at his pursuers, and counted four of them. Three looked to be around his age, and the other one around his sister's age. In the group, there was only one girl, and she was looking at him weirdly with reddened cheeks. What was her problem?

"I didn't see anything, I heard you," he corrected the boy who had spoken earlier.

"Well, Konohamaru, you were being pretty loud..."

The first boy who had spoken, now revealed to be 'Konohamaru' turned to the older boy. "Hey, you were being noisy too, boss!"

"Uh, what you guys doing anyway?" Shotatsu asked, glancing over at the girl. She was still staring at him... it was getting kind of creepy.

"We were playing ninja," the third and final boy said, sniffling a little. He seemed to have a bad cold.

Shotatsu blinked, and looked at the older boy questioningly. He had seen the forehead protector the boy wore. If he was already a ninja, why would he i play /i ninja? Weird. Shotatsu didn't really care about that now that he had taken a good look at the boy. It was the same boy he had seen at the ramen shop the previous day.

"Hey, you're the loudmouth from the ramen shop!"

"Loudmouth?!"

Konohamaru snickered at the boy, and nodded in what seemed to be agreement. "See, what did I tell ya, boss?"

"My name's Moegi!" the girl had finally stepped forward to speak. Her blush darkened a little when Shotatsu's attention focused on her. "It's nice to meet you."

"And my name's Udon," the other boy sniffled again. Someone really needs to get that kid a tissue...

"I'm Konohamaru!" the final of the younger boys announced proudly, puffing out his chest.

Shotatsu turned to fourth member of the little group, who boasted his name proudly as well: "My name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be the next Hokage!"

"My name's Shotatsu," he offered, and smiled. "So, uh... mind if I play ninja with you, too?"

* * *

"Tsukiko Akihana?"

Tsukiko's head jerked in the direction of the door at the sound of her name. Standing there was a man in the traditional Chunin/Jounin outfit. One of the first things Tsukiko noticed about him was the long horizontal scar across his face.

When the man looked up from the clipboard he was holding, their gazes met and he smiled warmly at her.

"Are you Tsukiko?" She nodded her head and stood from her seat, turning back around to Shiko briefly. He gave her an encouraging smile which she returned.

By the time she made it to the doorway, Tsukiko could feel herself beginning to grow a little nervous. What if she didn't pass the exam? She was given special permission to take the exam, so there were expectations she had to meet. She didn't want to disappoint her mom, or make the Hokage think that it was a waste of time giving her that special permission.

Tsukiko didn't know much about what she would be tested on during this phase of the exam. The written part of the exam had already been done around a half an hour ago, and she thought she did pretty well on it. That part of the exam was all the things that she had been able to easily memorize from text books and the like, but this part of the exam... well, it wasn't just something you could memorize from a book.

The man smiled again and introduced himself. "My name's Iruka. I'll be the one testing you for this part of the exam, okay?"

Tsukiko nodded again, and as he led her out of the room he continued, "Don't be so nervous. I'm sure you'll do just fine."

Something about his kind nature really did make her feel better, and she relaxed a little as she walked alongside him.

"Thanks, I sure hope so..."

"Oh yeah! I rock!" Tsukiko pumped a fist in the air as she left the academy, a forehead protector placed around her neck. She couldn't help but feel unbelievably happy right now.

The practical part of the exam went well enough. She created the required amount of clones (though, admittedly, the first had a finger or two missing, and the third had one or two extra and she had no clue how that had happened). After her practical exam, Iruka had graded the written part of the test. She had waited a whole ten minutes before Iruka gave her her grade on the written exam (87, not that bad) and announced that she had passed. The only thing Tsukiko had to worry about now was not getting sent back to the academy and having to wait out another six months to take the exam again.

"You passed too, huh?"

The elder Akihana sibling was startled once more, and she looked across from the Academy to see Shiko leaning against a tree there. He, too, had a forehead protector, only his was tied around his forearm.

"What? How did you get out here before I did? You weren't called until after I was..."

"There was more than one examiner, Tsukiko," he raised an eyebrow. "I just finished before you," he then finished with a shrug.

"...oh. Right."

He pushed off of the tree and walked over to Tsukiko. "So do you have to be home now, or what?"

Tsukiko shrugged. "I don't know. I'm assuming that as long as I'm back by sundown, I'm good. Why?"

"You sure? Good! Let's go get some ramen to celebrate."

Before Tsukiko could even agree or disagree, Shiko had loosely gripped her lower arm and began pulling her along in the direction of Ichiraku's. She blushed at his forward nature, but after shaking her head a few times to she managed to regain her senses.

"Hey! Who said I even wanted to go out for ramen?"

He stopped quickly, letting go of her arm, and Tsukiko almost ran into him.

"You don't want to go out for ramen? I'm paying."

"...yes."

"Okay then!" He grabbed her arm once more and started to pull her along again.

Tsukiko still felt a bit flustered, but allowed him to pull her along. Hey, if he was going to pay... Besides, the ramen at Ichiraku's was so good... better than any she had ever had before. Why decline such a tempting offer?

"I hope you have a lot of money on you, 'cause I'm i really /i hungry..."

"I'm home!"

After pulling off her shoes and setting them with the rest , she noted that her brother's were there and that there were a few pairs that she didn't recognize. Her mother's shoes were not there; she had run into her mother a little earlier in the day while she was with Shiko, and knew that she would be home late. Somehow, her mother had already managed to find a part-time, second shift job, so she wouldn't be home until around midnight.

After a moment, Tsukiko could distantly here the sound of voices coming from the direction of the bedrooms, and decided to check it out. One of the voices sounded vaguely familiar, two of them she didn't recognize, and one sounded sort of like a woman's voice.

'_Intruders_ ' She pulled out a kunai and carefully followed the sounds of the voices. It turned out that the voices were coming from Shotatsu's voices. '_I saw Sho's shoes, but I don't hear him in there..._'

As she neared the door to Shotatsu's room, she grew increasingly more nervous. Part of her didn't want to open up the door... for all she knew, the people on the other side were likely to kill her or something. But for all she knew, Shotatsu could be hurt too, or worse... dead.

She shook her head. No, she couldn't think like that.

She took a deep breath and quickly threw the door open. She then jumped into the room, kunai at the ready. But when she saw who exactly it was in there, she lowered her kunai slightly.

Two little boys, one older boy ('_Hey, that's the loudmouth from the ramen shop_') and...

Tsukiko's eye twitched.

...a naked woman, who fortunately had puffs of smoke covering her more...private areas.

"What the hell?!"


	3. Team 5 Is Formed!

Tsukiko often wondered how she found herself in odd situations like these. I mean, really, how often do you find a naked woman in your brother's bedroom? Okay, that might be a little more common if you're brother's say, married, or older and did... i that /i ... But...Shotatsu was only nine years old. Much too young for doing that sort of thing. And besides, Shotatsu himself was nowhere in sight. There was that loudmouth in orange, and two younger kids but Shotatsu himself was -

'_POOF_'

...the naked woman.

"What. The. Hell."

"Uh, hey sis!" Shotatsu said with a high-pitched, false cheeriness.

And then, all of a sudden, there was a flurry of movement all around Tsukiko as the four boys rushed to leave the bedroom. It didn't take long for her to regain her senses and begin chasing after them. She didn't exactly know _why_ she was chasing him, but at the moment it seemed like the right thing to do. Maybe this little chase would get the image of her brother as a naked woman out of her head. Damn him for getting an image like that stuck in her head! She felt like banging her head against a wall to rid herself of it.

"No, you guys wait up!"

One of Tsukiko's downfalls was that she wasn't the fastest person. But luckily for her, neither was her brother. Even luckier, Shotatsu had tripped into the boy in orange, sending them both to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. By the time she had run the length of the short hallway, the two were still trying to untangle themselves. The other two boys left the apartment in a hurry, slamming the door loudly along with them.

"Aw, dammit! Get your hand off of my- ow! Watch where you're sticking that! Ow ow ow ow!"

If Tsukiko had heard that under any other circumstances, she most likely would have stopped to marvel out how... _wrong_ that sounded. But as it was, she was more interested in finding out just what her brother had been doing. They had yet to notice her standing no more than two feet away, and while they were distracted Tsukiko took the time to lock the door. When she returned to the two, they still had not detached themselves from each other.

"Okay, mind telling me what the hell is going on?"

--Ten Minutes Later

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"O...kay... You were learning the Sexy technique from this kid," she jabbed a thumb in Naruto's direction, "but were too embarrassed to learn it outside somewhere, where anybody could see you. Wow, that's..."

Shotatsu? Wanting to learn a technique like that? It seemed so... unreal. The Shotatsu that Tsukiko knew would never have been interested in something like that. Not yet, at least. Wasn't he the one that was always telling her off for doing perverted things like this?

"You!" Tsukiko turned to point accusingly at Naruto, while she continued in a dramatic voice, "This is your fault! You've corrupted poor, little Shotatsu's mind!"

"Eh heh..."

"I don't know if I should be proud of Shotatsu's newfound...pervertedness, or grossed out," she added thoughtfully. Shotatsu made a face at her, all the while looking a tad nervous.

"You're... not going to say anything to mom, are you?"

Tsukiko gave him a long, calculating look. Well, she could tell mom and get him back for the rice incident. She didn't know how her mom would react, or if Shotatsu would get into any trouble at all. Judging by his previously noted nervousness, he seemed to have the idea that he would. That, or he just did want to face anymore embarrassment from having anyone find out about his newly-learned jutsu. Tsukiko herself never got in trouble for her perverted tendencies, unless she went way out of line – was this considered going out of line? She didn't know.

"No, but only on one condition," Tsukiko decided seriously. She raised a single finger to indicate 'one'. Then, she used that same finger to point at Naruto, all the while still looking at Shotatsu. "You have to get him to teach me that technique, too."

Shotatsu deadpanned. "You're kidding."

"Nope!"

_Sigh._

"And for a minute there I thought you could actually be serious..."

"Hmph," Tsukiko crossed her arms and looked away from him, though she couldn't help but smile, if only a little. It almost felt like old times, sitting here and talking with Shotatsu like this. She cracked open an eye to look at Naruto, who she had yet to actually be introduced to. "So, who are you, anyway?"

A grin spread across his face. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki! The next Hokage!"

Blinking, Tsukiko was unsure if she should take his loud introduction as being egotistical, or just really happy.

"My name's Tsukiko Akihana, the next..." she stopped to consider her next words, "well, the next something. I don't know what."

Insert sweatdrops here, from both Naruto and Shotatsu.

"So, are you gonna teach me that jutsu or not?"

hr

"Hey, Tsukiko! Over here!"

At the call of her name, Tsukiko turned her attention to the boy sitting in the far corner of the room. He waved at her, beckoning her over.

"Hey Shiko," she said tiredly, stifling a yawn as she shuffled over to him. Her half-lidded eyes were glazed over, her posture slacking. "It's too early to be up."

"Didn't get much sleep I take it?"

"No," she fell into the seat next to her male friend, and rested her head on her now folded arms. "I was up late last night."

"'Up late', eh? Doing what?"

"...learning."

Looking at the weird glint in Tsukiko's eyes, Shiko wasn't sure if he wanted to know, so he didn't bother asking. "Yeah... Anyway, you nervous at all?"

"Why would I be?"

Shiko grinned. "This is your first time, right? I've already done this before, I know exactly what's going to be happening. You have no clue. Fear of the unknown, you know?"

"But you failed the first time, didn't you? So you couldn't have done it very well, either..."

Shiko glared, but before he could give any sort of response, Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom.

"Congratulations!" Iruka positioned himself in front of his desk and the six students occupying the classroom. "I know most of you have already heard my little congratulatory speech before, so I'll skip that and get straight to announcing the teams. Team 5 will consist of Tsukiko Akihana, Shiko Takiyana, and Kayu Yamamoto."

"Same team! Lucky, huh?"

A nod and a smile were his replies. Shiko was the only person of the six passing students she knew, so she was hoping that she would be placed on a team with him.

"Hello." Both Shiko and Tsukiko turned in their seats. A girl, short in height with auburn hair, smiled kindly at them. She had a calm atmosphere about her. "I'm Kayu, your teammate."

She took a seat at the desk next to Tsukiko, who took the time to introduce herself.

"Hey! I'm Tsukiko, and this is Shiko," she pointed over her shoulder to the male. Kayu giggled lightly.

"I figured as much. It's nice to meet you."

"You too," Shiko replied from behind Tsukiko.

"- okay! Now that the teams have been announced, you can meet your sensei!" At the sound of the classroom door sliding open, the three turned their heads to look at the two Jounin who came through.

One was a tall female, with dirty blonde hair and large, innocent brown eyes. Her eyes scanned over the six students quickly, as if she'd be able to tell which would be her students just by looking at them. The other, a male with dark raven hair and eyes to match, nodded in greeting

"Team 6?" The man said stiffly, and the other three new genin stood up to follow him out of the room.

The woman turned to look at the members of team 5, smiling broadly in a way that reminded Tsukiko of Naruto. "So I guess that means you guys are team 5?" Her eyes flickered to each of their faces, pausing briefly. Without waiting for a reply, she turned to Iruka. "You mind if we stay here for a little while?"

"Not at all, I was just about to leave anyway." He smiled, and after waving goodbye to the three students exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

The woman walked over to Iruka's desk, took a seat on top of it, and then turned back to team 5.

"Okay, let's get some basic introductions over with, and then we can go out for lunch to get to know each other better. That sound okay to you guys?"

"That depends," Shiko narrowed his eyes at her, not unkindly. "Are you paying?"

She let out a short bark of laughter before nodding. "Of course. Anyway, my name's Shizuka Watajiyo." Shizuka tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Let's see... I'm 24 years old, a former ANBU, and I like kids. Or I wouldn't be leading a team, would I? Okay, the girl on my left, you next."

"Alright," Kayu nodded, "My name is Kayu Yamamoto. I'm 12 years old, and I like kids, too. I have two little brothers and one younger sister, who I love very much. Um... my favorite animals are rabbits."

"Okay! I'll go next!" Shiko declared soon after. "My name's Shiko Takiyana, and I'm 12 years old. My favorite types of jutsu are taijutsu and genjutsu. I like training with my older brother. He's awesome! He was just promoted to ANBU not too long ago. I like messing around with his katana, too. Also-"

"I said _brief_ introductions," Shizuka raised a hand to cut him off. "What you said is enough already. The last one, you're up."

"My name's Tsukiko Akihana," she began, but paused for a moment. A small look of realization passed across her face. "Hey! Has anyone noticed Shiko's name sort of rhymes with mine? Tsukiko Akihana, Shiko Takiyana? That's weird."

"Weren't you really tired a minute ago?"

Looking over at him, Tsukiko frowned at him for interrupting her. "I like the ramen at Ichiraku's, though I prefer somen noodles. I have a younger brother. Uh..." She wracked her brain for something else to say about herself. "And I just moved to Konoha recently from Intai, a shinobi retirement village."

Jumping off of the desk, Shizuka smiled. "Okay! Now that that's over, let's go eat. Onward, march!"

"Hey! Tsukiko!"

Tsukiko's attention was drawn to the blonde waving frantically at her. He was sitting next to four other people. Only one of them was curious enough to turn completely around to see who Naruto was calling for. She Tsukiko and the rest of team 5 were heading towards Ichiraku's, as the group had decided to go to there for lunch.

"You know him?"

Glancing up at her sensei, she nodded. "Yeah, just met him last night."

"So _that's_ what – or maybe who? - you were doing last night!"

Almost immediately, Tsukiko's face became a delicate shade of pink, and her eyes widened comically.

She spun her head around to look at Shiko.

"It's not like that! I just met him! Geez, and I thought I was a pervert!"

Without giving any time for him to reply, she sped up, leaving a giggling Kayu and a laughing Shizuka and Shiko behind.

"Hey, why's your face red?" Tsukiko took a seat next to Naruto, and shrugged while she ordered a miso ramen.

"Aw man! Why'd you have to call her over, Naruto?"

At the sound of her brother's voice, Tsukiko turned her head to look towards where she had heard him. He was sitting on the other side of Naruto, a frown on his face.

"It's bad enough that I have to deal with her at home!"

"I love you too, Sho, I really do," she muttered sarcastically.

"Why'd you leave us behind like that?" Someone took the seat to Tsukiko's left, and two other people sat to his left.

"I'm not answering that," she crossed her arms across her chest, purposely avoiding looking at Shiko.

Shizuka recognized the blonde – most adults in the village did. From what she knew, he was nothing more than a hyperactive prankster, and generally a pretty nice kid, if a little obnoxious. And of course, she recognized one of the people he was with – Uchiha Sasuke. The large Uchiha clan symbol on the back of his shirt wasn't hard to miss. The younger boy between those two genin, and the girl to the Uchiha's were the ones she didn't recognize. And finally, the man on the far left was one she knew fairly well. He looked up from the book he was reading to meet her gaze. Her eyes narrowed at him.

_Kakashi Hatake..._'

"Shizuka-sensei?" Kayu said softly from beside her, and she broke eye contact with Kakashi. Shizuka shook her head at her and smiled.

"Care to introduce us to your friend?" Shizuka suggested, turning away from Kayu's questioning gaze.

"Sure," she leaned back in her seat to give her sensei and teammates a clear view of Naruto. "This is Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage. To his left is my little brother Shotatsu. And, uh..." She paused, and looked at Naruto to introduce the other three people sitting with him.

"These are my teammates Sasuke," he didn't sound quite as enthusiastic as he usually did when he spoke the boy's name, "and Sakura. And next to her is Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired jounin gave a "Yo" in greeting, but didn't look away from his book.

"It's nice to meet you," Sakura smiled politely.

Tsukiko returned the smile, and turned in her seat so that she could point out and introduce her team. When she saw the glare set on Shiko's face, her smiled faltered. "Shiko?"

Ignoring her, he nodded towards Sasuke. "You're that show-off Uchiha from the Academy!"

Said Uchiha turned his head to meet Shiko's glare. "...who are you?"

Shiko's mouth opened slightly in shock, "Y-you don't even remember who I am?"

Sasuke made a noise that sounded something like 'hn' before turning away.

"...anyway, this is Shiko, next to him is Kayu, and then that's Shizuka-sensei," she pointed to each of them in turn.

"Hello," Kayu greeted quietly, while Shiko got over his shock. He grumbled a hello as well, and turned to his bowl of ramen which just arrived.

"Hello Shizuka," Kakashi turned a page in his book, his visible eye arching up.

"Don't 'Hello Shizuka' me, asshole," she glared at him. Team 5 exchanged glances. What happened to their cheery sensei from moments before?

"Sure," the jounin replied, just as casually as before, unfazed by her animosity.

She growled softly, glaring at him one last time before turning to her own bowl of ramen, muttering to herself. "Damn him anyway..."

"Er, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura addressed the older man, who didn't give her any reply.

At the same time, Kayu softly questioned Shizuka again with a, "Shizuka-sensei?"

Naruto leaned over, bumping shoulders with Tsukiko to get her attention. "Hey, why doesn't your sensei like my sensei? Do they know each other or something?"

She leaned in as well, whispering conspiratorially. "Seems like it. I don't why she doesn't like him, though. And Naruto? Your breath smells."

With that, she leaned away from them and started to eat her ramen, which was already beginning to grow cold.

Naruto blinked a few times, his cheeks a light pink. He raised a cupped hand to his mouth and checked his breath.

"Hey, what were you two talking about?" Shiko leaned forward so he could look at the two suspiciously.

"My breath doesn't stink!"

Tsukiko just snickered and stuffed some more ramen into her mouth.


End file.
